How to back up photos privately and the benefits of using the cloud, best time to buy a new computer, get control of your browser back, can you use your old hard drives in a new computer, update your mobile phone, how to fix your WiFi, and your calls!

Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Lisa wants to know what the future holds for saving storage and media when it comes to her personal data like photos and videos. Leo says that optical and physical media has been weeding itself out for quite some time, even though we still have hard drives. The trend is heading towards the cloud. The benefit is that she doesn't have to worry about file formats. She could continue to use hard drives, as they are getting cheaper and denser, but it's on her to keep them updated with the latest.

Leo likes to backup on both hard drives and the cloud. He backs up his photos to Google, Apple, and Amazon Photos. He also keeps a local hard drive backup as well. USB drives are also getting larger and are far easier to use. They're also getting cheaper. So Leo recommends using those as well.

Kenny wants to know when new computers will be coming out. Leo says that computers aren't like cars, so there's no annual expectation. There is a boost of new computers that usually come out in Spring and Fall, mostly for kids going back to school, and then the holiday shopping season.

How about mobile phones? Very similar for Apple, which wants their phones out in time for the holiday shopping season, but Android phones come out almost weekly. HTC has decided to only sell higher end phones moving forward, rather than get in a price war over Android phones. Although Leo says if you're paying over $800 for a smartphone, you may as well buy strictly Google's Pixel.

Blanton's browser has been hijacked by Launchpage. His home page goes to a bunch of credit card sites and ads. Leo says that's an easy fix. In Firefox, he can just go to Settings > Preferences > General > Startup and change it there. Or, an even easier method is to drag the page he wants to the house icon and release.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Dave wants to know if his old RAID hard drives can be read by his computer. Leo says it depends. If mirrored, maybe. They're identical. But maybe not. He shouldn't make any assumptions. Dave should copy the data off it and then he can take each of them and put them in their own enclosed drives, or use a new array like Synology. Synology also does a disk check periodically to keep it healthy. When he puts them in, they'll check the hard drives as they are building the raid.

Mike has a Google Nexus 6 that isn't updating. He's tried to get Nougat on it, but it won't update. Leo says that the Nexus 6 may not be getting updates anymore, especially through Verizon. Leo says he may have to root the phone to get it updated. Google didn't offer a major update to the Nexus 6, and the security update for March was pulled because it broke Android Pay. They do plan to update to version 7 soon.

What's going on with AirPort development? Leo says that Apple has reassigned most of the engineers who handle the Airport to other products, so it sounds like Apple is moving away from it. Since routers do wear out and become unreliable over time, it's probably time to replace it with a different brand.

Patrick is having issues with Verizon. He's getting no cloud backup and they say it's a nationwide outage. Leo says it would be in the news if that were true. Sounds like they're not fixing the problem. Leo says it's time to go to the state and federal regulators and complain.

Steve's Dell Inspiron laptop drops Wi-Fi all the time. Dell claims to have fixed it via remote access, but it didn't work. Leo says that it's likely the person at Dell tech support had very little training and was following the directions in the notebook. All too often it doesn't fix the problem. What he'll need to do is call them back and ask to have his case escalated to tier 2 or even tier 3 level support.

Why does Wi-Fi drop out? It could be congestion. The 2.4ghz band is woefully crowded. Also, Wi-Fi Networks could be dropping out while other networks are in heavy use. More likely, the problem is his router. Routers provided by ISPs are usually very basic modem-router combos. It's probably older, too. Leo says to turn off the router portion of it and buy his own. They are newer, more secure, and updatable. Modern routers are also dual band, which are at 2.4 and 5.0 ghz.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Kevin loves to travel with his wife and needs a small laptop that he can use. He was thinking of a Chromebook. Leo says that traveling is problematic with a Chromebook because he doesn't have constant access to the internet. He will have it in the hotels, sure, so that's beneficial. But on a cruise ship, the internet is slow and congested.

The Acer Transformer is a fantastic choice, which is part tablet, part laptop. It's nice and small, runs Windows, and is very fast. Leo's favorite, though, is the HP Spectre. It's super thin, light, and powerful. It has a 12-13" screen. He should also look at the Lenovo Mini.

Jose wants to know where Leo got his desk. Leo says he got it at officefurniture.com and it's the largest desk made. It's called a 3/4s desk and Leo can control the radio show from there with multiple monitors, a mixer, and much more. Check it out here. It's not cheap at $3,000. But it'll do the job.

John recently bought a business, but the software that runs it is hard to use. Leo says that the problem with custom software is that it isn't usually documented or user friendly. Leo says that a good CRM program will serve him well. CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Management." Add in inventory control and he's looking at SalesForce.com as his best bet. It's cloud based, too. Quickbooks is good for accounting. Microsoft's CRM software is also very good.

John downloaded a VPN program called Jailbreak and now his Windows 7 machine can't connect to the internet. Leo says the VPN is probably at fault here. VPNs act as a go-between between him and the servers he surfs to.

How can John get rid of it without making things worse? He should check his network internet settings to see if "proxy" is turned on. If that is, then he should shut it off. He should also look in his browser settings for similar things. There may also have been changes to the router settings as well. If he has access to another computer, then he should try going to this Microsoft page.

Another option is to hit the Windows Key and type "System Restore." That will roll his computer back to the time before the VPN and he'll be back in the saddle again.

Gloria wants to cut her phone service and use Ooma. Is that a good idea? Leo says that with one computer plugged into the internet, she can, but she'll also need a router so she can give access to others. A simple wireless router from Asus or DLink would work well. She should go for the dual band or tri band router. The WireCutter suggests the TP-Link Archer C7 (v2). She can find out more about it at thewirecutter.com.

Gloria should remember that when the power goes out, she won't have a phone because she won't have internet. That also means no 911. A cell phone is always wise.

This Week in Tech News

Tuesday is Apple's next event and Leo is expecting the latest iPhone 11 (or whatever it'll be named). After the announcement, users will be able to order it starting Friday, the 13th. Leo says that gone are the days where people would wait for a week in line to be the first to get it. Now they just go online at midnight and place their order.

Other expected announcements include another update to the Apple Watch. Rumor has it that Apple will be offering ceramic versions again, along with titanium models. But Leo says that the cheapest is just as good. it's what he gets.

Apple will also release its new Gaming service for $5 a month. And Apple TV+, which Leo says the already announced original series isn't anything to get excited about. At the end of the day, it'll be another $11 a month coming out of your bank account for maybe one or two shows. In the end, cord-cutting has become less of a bargain because you're simply paying just as much as with a cable subscription. Maybe even more.

The latest scam is to convince the phone company to transfer your mobile phone number to a new SIM. Cloud Hopper is the app that does this. Once that's accomplished, the bad guys can gain control of all your apps, including banking apps with 2 factor authentication through a SIMJACKED phone. That's what happened to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Leo says that what he recommends is contacting your mobile service and request they use a PIN to verify it's you when seeking to get a new SIM.

New phones are hitting the market starting right now. First out the gate was Samsung with the Galaxy Note10. But it's over $1100! Next up is the Google Pixel 4, probably coming in October. The iPhone 11 is also rumored to arrive soon, and there's an Apple event scheduled for the next two weeks. Huawei will put out the Mate 30 on September 18th, if you can get it. It's the first major phone launch since the company was blacklisted. It will also be the first without Google apps and services. Just Android. The great irony of Huawei's blacklisting is that it ended up raising sales within China. Patriotism? Perhaps.

The phone is out now, in an inopportune time, with the new iPhone coming out in a few weeks, and Google's Pixl 4 coming soon. The Note 10+ has 12-hour battery life, and a three-lens camera - Telephoto, Medium, and very wide angle. It also has a lidar camera called "Time of Flight" that bounces radar off it to create a 3D model or image.

What makes the Note 10 more interesting is the small stylus to write up notes with. You can even create the notes with the phone turned off. And it does a great job with handwriting recognition. It's almost flawless.

There's also something called Samsung Desk, which turns the Note into a desktop computer that can connect to a monitor, mouse and keyboard. Leo says that's intriguing, but must people will likely not use it. One benefit is that you can connect it to your Windows computer and Mac (though it doens't work all that well) and it will act as a hard drive device or second screen. It's interesting.